Help Me With My Video Project!

I’m soliciting your help, readers, with a video project I’m putting together focusing on “American Values.” Think of it as a cross between the old NPR program “This I Believe,” a Pew Research Poll, a snapshot of American diversity a la Flickr, and something like your senior thesis. I want to know what you– all of you– count as your dearest and most cherished values. These can be lofty (like freedom or love) or mundane (like dancing or fresh baked bread). They can be political (like free markets or democracy), aesthetic (like the sound of strings or Van Gogh’s colors), social (like friendship or forgiveness), or religious (like grace or prayer). I don’t care what it is that you value, I just want to know what it is.

Here’s where you come in: send me a photo of yourself naming one of your “core values.” I’d like you to have some sort of sign (either that you hold or that is written on you somewhere) naming the value you value. And, where applicable, I’d like to see you engaged in/surrounded by/symbolically representing/or in some other manner photographically capturing the value you name. A very, very simple example (from yours truly) looks something like this:

<--- See how easy it is? So go ahead and grab a marker, a piece of paper and your camera and snap a shot for me. Then, email it to [email protected] . For all you iPhone users out there, you can even make it hipstamatic!

I’m on a bit of a tight deadline, so please send me your contributions by MARCH 1st. (That’s next Tuesday.) I promise to post the finished product here on the blog.

Thanks in advance!

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UPDATE 2/26: The photos are coming in steadily now, and I’ve been a mixture of inspired, baffled, and amazed. But this project will only be a success if I get more, so please send yours in post haste. Some people have emailed me asking what exactly I “want” (or “don’t want”) in the photos. Let me just say again that I want a photo of whatever you value. No censorship here. My only “coaching” will be too suggest that you send high-resolution photos if at all possible.

Here are a few of the contributions I’ve already received, in case you want to see what others are doing:

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UPDATE 2/28: THE DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED! As is the case with most projects, I suppose, this one is not conforming to schedule. The good news is that’s because so many people have expressed a desire to contribute, but don’t quite have their photos together yet. So, I’m extending the deadline to MARCH 3rd (this Thursday). Get your photos in!
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UPDATE 3/4/11: The deadline has passed for submitting photos to be included in the “American Values” video. However, if you’d still like to send me a photo, I will gladly include it in the (publicly viewable) Facebook photo album that contains all the submissions I’ve received. I’m in the process of editing the video now. Keep checking back…. it will be posted soon!